


I want to escape (and believe that I got the strength)

by Florchis



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post S4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 06:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11937822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Florchis/pseuds/Florchis
Summary: While Coulson has been living for a while in a space station, Melinda May wakes up in a completely different place, with rather odd company. She doesn't know who took the rest of her team, or where or why, but it doesn't matter, because she is going to find out.





	I want to escape (and believe that I got the strength)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @mjae19 on tumblr for the @AosFicNet2 Exchange. Hope you like it. 
> 
> (Title is a loose translation from "Y quisiera" by the spanish duo Ella Baila Sola)
> 
> As usual, the oppinions/feelings portrayed by characters here =/= my own oppinions.

May looks around what looks like a standard cell in a standard prison. What is definitely not standard is the company: she high-key expected to be alone and low-key expected to be accompanied by all her team, or at least all the women. This small selection is instead quite… odd.  

She doesn’t know who took the rest or exactly why, but they took Coulson, so they clearly know about S.H.I.E.L.D.; they took Fitz, so they probably know about the Framework; they took Elena and Daisy, so they likely know that they are Inhumans.

Quite informed people, whoever took them.

But not informed enough, because to believe that her, Simmons and Mack are not both able _and_ willing to wreak havoc to get the other four back, well, that’s just foolish.

May can not wait to prove to them _exactly_ how foolish.

Mack is still out like a light, but Simmons is stirring awake, her head on May’s lap. There is a cut above her left eyebrow, not deep but nasty-looking, and May is keeping the bleeding at bay with the sleeve of her jacket. If it doesn’t get treated in the short-term- which doesn’t seem likely- it will probably leave a scar to match the one over her right eyebrow. She is _so young,_ not even thirty, and so many scars already dotting her body, and yet. May can only feel proud that Jemma fought hard enough to earn them, both times and all the times in between.

“Shh, Simmons, don’t move too much.”

She ignores May’s advice and sits up, and not for the first time May thinks about how doctors always make the worst patients.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know.”

Jema looks around, sees Mack’s body slouching against a wall- breathing, just unconscious, May already checked-, but she doesn’t ask about the ones missing, and May doesn’t voice her conclusions. Simmons is more than smart enough to figure it out on her own.

“Okay. What do we do then?”

May signals Mack with her head.

“Now we wait, and we get ready.”

* * *

Since he became Director, she has gotten used to Phil not being her partner during missions. Old habits die hard, though, and there is an itch under her skin whenever he is out of her sight: going into the field is always potentially dangerous, but when he was right next to her, she always knew she was there to protect him. She tries to convince herself that he is not helpless, that he can protect himself, but he died while he was alone and she was grieving behind a desk, so she can’t be blamed for being skeptic.

But right now she can’t afford to think about him, where he is, what they might be doing to him, how she is unable to protect him. Much less about all the things that had been left unsaid for long years, about that bottle of Haig that they have been aging for as long as their friendship exists and that got stolen straight from their hands.

Phil is not with her, and if she obsesses over him, he would never be.

Right now she has Mack, who is resilient and stubborn and brave, and who she did not choose. She has Simmons, who is resilient and stubborn and brave, and who she did choose. They both try their damnest best to be team players, and by doing that  they have developed personal bonds with all the people on their team. Mack put his life at risk more than once for Daisy’s sake, and Fitz and Simmons fought tooth and nail to be together, and that is just the most salient example for both of them.

She is alive and her memories are fully back and she remembers the company’s purpose but mostly she remembers _him,_ and that will be enough. That _has_ to be enough.   

* * *

Once he regains full consciousness to understand where they are and what happened- that is that they _don’t know_ where they are or what happened- a shadow of eternal tiredness falls on Mack’s eyes, a look that May can’t help but understand. It’s different from the look on Jemma’s eyes, who tries to appear stoical, but May can read all the signs of anxiety on her body.

She longs for a moment in time when her trauma was the worst of all the people around her. Because she have been through hell and back, but Simmons has been through hell and back, through hell and back, _through hell and back._ Because she lost her husband and the possibility of a family, but Mack lost an actual, breathing, flesh-and-bone child. _Twice._ (She would never dare say that one of those times the child was actually a stream of code. She was there, she knows how it felt, and she knows better than that.)

A younger version of her probably wouldn’t believe it, but she longs for those times when the weight of the world felt like it was solely on her shoulders. She could carry it if that meant that all these people she loves wouldn’t have to do it.

* * *

There doesn’t seem to be other precautions in order besides the issue cell, and whoever captured them obviously has enough faith on their withholding strategies or enough ignorance on their abilities to have not even bothered with tying her and Jemma up. Mack’s luck has been different based probably only on his size; May can't understand how someone can be close enough to know who the inhumans on their team are, but not close enough to know her reputation.

Luckily, she is not the kind of warrior that dreads a fight unless it’s with a fair opponent; fighting is a way of living, yes, but it also is a mean to an end, and whatever advantage she can have to take them out more quickly, more easily and in a less messier way, she will take it.

Jemma is twitchy besides her, and May would like to take her hands down, let her know that everything will be okay but: a) she is not in the business of lying to her teammates; b) that would be so not her style. She much rather _make_ things okay.

“Do we know where they took them?”

Mack’s voice is rough from disuse after she unties him with a small blade she always carries inside her boot, and that makes May wonder how long they have been here. It’s difficult to keep score without being able to see the sun, and she has been trained to resist without water or food for long periods of time. Maybe she could ask Jemma what would be the normal timeline for a normal body, but none of them had led normal lives, so that would be pointless. The sound of Mack’s voice startles Jemma, and May places a hand on her shoulder to help her get at ease; there is no use in wasting energy and alertness with each other.

“No. But that doesn’t matter.”

They both look at them, and Simmons gapes at May’s smile, while Mack frowns.

“And why is that?”

She cracks her neck, and for a hot second she thinks about how that would be such a Ward move. But Ward is dead, and they are alive, and May is going to make sure that things stay that way.

She gets closer to the bars before replying, her ears alert for any information that might give them some leverage. After a couple minutes of getting used to the background noise, she hears at the same time the soft murmur that signals they are near a river and two guards, speaking english and fantasizing about what they are going to get for lunch. _Score._

“Because we are going to find out.”   


End file.
